Emily S.
Yelp
The first observation we made was that the ambiance here was lovely. Tons of natural light, high ceilings, a calming blue color on the walls, spa-like music. Very relaxing, plus the large glass walls look out onto a plaza with grassy landscaping and a water feature.
The menu was large and vegetarian-friendly, plus a good selection of bubble teas. It was a nice addition to our usual rotation of Vietnamese places, which includes place we love but that don't have nearly as many options to choose from.
The food itself was really good. Everything came to us hot and very fresh, which, of course, amped up the flavor. My vegetarian spring rolls were superb, the best I have had in recent memory, and came with a fairly standard red dipping sauce. My taro milk tea with boba was also very nice, mixed fresh, and it lacked the unpleasant grainy texture and/or slightly popcorny taste that I have sometimes observed in the past with taro flavored milk teas specifically. My fiance's beef banh mi was excellent and he really enjoyed it.
I ordered lemongrass tofu. The menu wasn't super descriptive and it was exactly what it said: fried pieces of tofu with a lemongrass coating, and an ample portion. The flavor was very good, and it was a unique dish I hadn't seen in other Vietnamese restaurants, but it didn't have any kind of sauce on it and wasn't mixed with vegetables or anything, so it was pretty dry and had the same texture and flavor throughout so it got kind of boring after a while. Had this been mixed in a sauce with a few chopped up veggies for variety, however, i would have been stellar.
The servers were very friendly and eager to be helpful, but we did have some communication barrier issues that impacted our meal. While my fiance eventually loved his banh mi, he ordered it without mayo, which he can't stand, but it came out with an ample slathering of the stuff. When we called it to the server's attention she immediately apologized and got him a new one. When she came back with the second banh mi, since my tofu dish was so very dry, I tried to diplomatically ask if there was a sauce that was supposed to go on my tofu that I hadn't received, or if I was meant to use the hoisin and sriracha already on the table, and our server didn't understand my question. So I let it go and ended up using the leftover sauce from my spring rolls, which was definitely not intended but I had to improvise. Earlier in our meal, the spring rolls had left my fingers really greasy but we hadn't received napkins, so I got the attention of a staff member other than our server and asked for napkins, but she didn't understand.
All in all, I recommend this place because care is clearly put into the food and the environment, and the food is flavorful, well-made and fresh. Just set your expectations regarding communication and service.
A note re: parking - there IS free parking here, but it's kind of hard to find. In the back of the building you can turn into a driveway to go into the underground parking garage, but there are big signs that say resident parking and Harris Teeter parking and it can be easy to miss the fact that it's also for the other retail in the plaza, including Pho Saigon Pearl. When you get into the garage, it's a bit of a maze to get to the parking that's designated for the smaller retail places other than Harris Teeter. And then there are very conspicuously posted signs about paying to park, which are confusing. It took us a while to figure out that that's for overnight parking only and you don't have to pay during daytime business hours.
